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Fire strikes history

Years spent revitalizing Plant City's heritage go up in smoke when a fire ravages part of downtown.

By CURTIS KRUEGER and KEVIN GRAHAM
Published February 23, 2005

[Times photo: Skip O'Rourke] Firefighters battle the blaze that snuffed out much of Plant City's rebult historical district.

[Times photo: Skip O'Rourke] Deliah Hill of Plant City on Tuesday looks over the damage a Monday night fire did to several downtown buildings. The fire comes just weeks before the city was to open itself to thousands of visitors as host of the annual Florida Strawberry Festival.

PLANT CITY - Twenty-two miles east of the angular, glinting downtown of Tampa, the center of Plant City is brick, homey and Old Florida, a reminder of days when Big Business meant citrus and cattle.

As it worked in recent years to revitalize its downtown, this city of 32,000 has done so by calling on the past, filling once-empty buildings with antique shops and quaint cafes.

That's why a late-night fire Monday in the heart of Plant City's historic downtown hurt so much. Just a couple of weeks before the city goes on display for the annual Florida Strawberry Festival, several buildings in the 100 block of S Collins Street went up in smoke.

"This is a part of Plant City that can't be replaced," said Candace Berlin, 52, a Plant City resident who watched the blaze. "We've shopped here and eaten here. It's what we know as home."

Flames tore through buildings housing the Old Village Shoppes, Yesterday's Attic, a law office, a television repair shop and a traffic school, and did minor damage to the popular Whistle Stop cafe. A half-block mural of Plant City's history has survived for now, but most of what surrounds the painted wall has crumbled.

Jeweler Joe Grimes was peering into the smoldering rubble Tuesday afternoon, wondering whether his well-known collection of strawberry-themed jewelry had melted in the raging heat. Attorney James H. Buzbee feared he had lost records from thousands of clients, plus $4,000 worth of artwork and the only picture he owns of his grandmother graduating from high school in 1905.

"It was unbelievable," said Anna Genco, 45, who owns the Silver Dollar across Dr. M.L. King Jr. Boulevard from the fire. She watched firefighters battling to douse it. "They tried and tried and everywhere they went it kept going someplace else."

Mayor Michael S. Sparkman said the fire burned "right at the heart of the historic district," which he said he had worked for years to help restore and promote.

Shelby Bender, president of the Historical Society of East Hillsborough, was not sure of the buildings' exact ages, but said many in the area were built between 1900 and 1925.

Even Tuesday, as firefighters continued to hose down the collapsed and charred buildings, it was easy to see the historic flavor of the block.

On the south side stands the detailed mural painted by local artist John Briggs in 1974. Among other things, it shows a train coming into town, a significant part of the development of this community known for its agriculture. On the north side of the block, just past the Whistle Stop, a real-life CSX train rumbled by at midday.

Unlike most of the other buildings on the east side of the block, the Whistle Stop cafe was still standing. Fire officials said it suffered minor damage.

Firefighters continued their investigation Tuesday and had not determined a cause. The fire department did not release damage estimates Tuesday.

Plant City Fire Rescue Operations Chief Bill Bowers said firefighters were first called to a TV repair shop at 9:46 p.m. Monday at 104 E Dr. M.L. King Jr. Blvd. They quickly sought help from other agencies.

"We knew we were being overwhelmed, so we started calling for help," Bowers said. Hillsborough Fire Rescue, the Tampa Fire Department and Lakeland firefighters helped respond.

Bowers said firefighters first went inside the TV repair shop to attack the flames, but they went back out when the fire became too hot. When reinforcements arrived, they went back inside one of the buildings but were forced to leave again.

Next they climbed onto the roof and used power saws to cut holes in it. But thick black smoke billowed out of the holes, a sign that the fire was growing more dangerous and spewing poisonous gas.

"We knew it was unsafe to be on that roof," Bowers said. So firefighters left the roof, which eventually collapsed, and continued spraying water over the structure.

Tuesday afternoon, officials were still hosing down the debris and waiting for an answer on the fire's cause. Meanwhile, people like Grimes, the jeweler, were waiting for answers of their own. Grimes wanted to know whether his fireproof safe really turned out to be fireproof. "The only thing I have of my dad's is an original antique watch," said Grimes, who lives in Tampa but considers himself a part of the Plant City community. "I got it after he died. It's in there."

And so were the "tools that I've had since I was 16 years old, stuff you can't buy."

Buzbee, the attorney, had his offices in the same spot on Collins Street for 32 years. "I don't think there's going to be anything that survives," he said.

Lifelong Plant City resident Jessica Tindel, 18, came out to the fire about 30 minutes after it started with her camcorder. She kept her lens focused on the antique store and remembered the times she'd shopped there.

"Now, it's going to be gone," Tindel said. "It's just a shame. They're probably going to knock it down and make a parking lot."

Sparkman said he expects the Whistle Stop to reopen soon, but added much of the rest of the block will be an eyesore for a while. Still, he said, he felt blessed for the surrounding fire departments that helped Plant City.

"We could have easily lost the whole city block."

[Last modified February 23, 2005, 00:56:10]